


Moving on

by locrianrose



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, in which i imply lots of things, past unhealthy relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-03-25 00:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3790645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/locrianrose/pseuds/locrianrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things are different now. South doesn't want to be here. North just wants her to tell him what happened. Everyone is confused and no one knows how to communicate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Boo. Let me in."

"South--I haven't seen you in..." North trailed off, staring at  staring at her and the scar the now graced her cheek before spotting the little hand hanging on to hers, then sighed, opening the door wider for her. "Come in. I just made some dinner. I'll put some more on."

"Are you the only one here?" South stripped off her coat and dropped a plastic bag of clothes to the floor. It didn’t take much for North to notice that South wasn’t fit as she always was before, and he doesn’t miss how the kid hid behind her and the fact that they both looked far worse for the wear.

"Yeah, for now."

"Great. C'mon, kid. Let's get you settled down." South pulls the child’s hand along with her, taking him into the living room without another word to North. His heart twinged painfully when he saw the features that matched his sisters so well on the child, and he was forced to wonder where the hell that she'd been for the past three years and why she’d cut off contact with him.

"South, aren't you going to introduce me?"

"What?" She looked back at him sharply from where she was taking off the boy’s coat. The kid was still staring at North pensively, and it made him a little uncomfortable to see that he was making him nervous. "Ugh, fine. North, this is Theo. My kid. We need a place to stay for a few days, then we can move on. You don’t need to worry about it." South didn’t meet his eyes, and North didn’t believe what she was saying. He knew her, and more than anything, he knew how she lied, and how to tell when she was trying to keep him from figuring something out. (Some things never changed.)

"Fine." North stared at them both, pulling out his phone to text York to tell him to stay over at Carolina's tonight, and that he wouldn’t be meeting them there. The other man wouldn’t mind, although North would have to explain the situation eventually. He knew that he’d be able to get the story out of South later, and he honestly was afraid to know what it might be.

 Anyone could see the bruises on South's arms and he didn’t like how the kid--Theo-- wouldn't even meet his eyes. South was shockingly gentle to the boy, and he could tell that she cared about him, but what he didn’t understand was why South would even have a kid unless she’d changed more than he ever would have thought that she could. That hadn’t been something that she’d ever wanted, and she’d been deafeningly vocal about that.

Once North had sacrificed his dinner to South and Theo, who both wolfed it down as if they hadn't eaten in weeks, South tugged Theo into the bathroom and started working on getting him clean. York had been trying call him, so North returned the call, supplying him with a brief explanation. They'd all known South back in college, but North had definitely gotten the impression that South didn't want to be talking to anyone about this, but then again, that was South. She'd made herself the odd one out when she cut them out of her life.

North paused as he heard cautious footsteps approaching him, spotting Theo approaching him. He squatted down so as to be on eye level with the child, then smiled.

 “Hey there.”

 “Hi.” Theo glanced nervously at North, shifting his feet. North noted that South had put him in one of his old shirts, something that he’d been meaning to throw out, and he couldn’t help but smile comfortingly at the kid.

 “Theo, right?” North asked, smiling encouragingly. Theo nodded. “I’m North.”

 “Mom said that.”

 “Theo.” North looked up at South. She looked better now than she had when they’d arrived, and he was glad to see that she’d at least washed her face and pulled her hair up, and that she seemed to have relaxed. “I need to talk to North. I bet he has a show that you can watch while we do, okay?”

 Theo glanced to North, eyes excitedly looking to him.

 “…Yeah. I have some old Disney tapes. We can put one in.” North nodded, watching South carefully. “I’ll do that.”

Once Robin Hood was playing and Theo was staring at it intently South grabbed North by the arm, tugging him into the kitchen with her, turning to face him, looking like she was preparing for a battle.

"Okay." South started, hands on her hips, glaring at North. "What the hell do you want to know?"

"South." He began reprovingly. "It's been years. You're lucky that I haven't moved. I'm glad that you're here, but where were you?"

She shifted uncomfortably, scuffing her foot against the floor. "I proved I wasn't gay."

"South." North looked at her warningly. "I don't care about that. You should know that I never cared."

"Wasn't enough for Mom." She muttered back to him, and North remembered his own difficulty dealing with their parents and their reactions to his choices. Their parents were far from understanding, especially given the status of their home country and its draconian opinions on sexuality.

"So you got knocked up. Why didn't you ever come see me? I would've liked to meet the kid. He does seem nice, even if he is pretty quiet."

"North." South sounded irritable, turning to face the fridge and opening it. "He's a great kid. Wasn't his fault that things got so fucked up. If it’d worked out then we would have visited."

"...Then who's was it, South?"

“Don’t you have any beer in here?”

“South. Tell me what happened.”

“I already told you!” She turned to him again, fuming. “I got knocked up, and being the stupid idiot that I am, I got attached to the idiot who did it.”

 “South…” North began warningly. “Just tell me what happened.” He placed a careful hand on her arm, knowing just how tense she was.

South’s expression darkened. “I’m not talking about it. We can be gone in a few days. I don’t care.”

“ _Anfisa_ , please.” He let her name slip out, and he instantly knew that doing so had been a mistake

“Shut up, North!” South hissed at him, backing tensely away as she stared at his face. “Just shut up! I don’t need this shit from you! I just needed somewhere to stay.”

 North stared at his sister, trying to understand just what would have happened to cause her to react like this to his questions. He didn’t have time to reply before Theo appeared, sleepily approaching from the other room.

 “Mom?”

 South flinched as Theo spoke, and North noticed just how guilty she looked as Theo took her hand, following him back into the living room.

 “Yeah kid?”

 North closed the still open fridge then glanced back down at his phone as it buzzed to see if Carolina or York had contacted him. He didn’t know the number, so he let it ring, staring into the other room where South was awkwardly trying to tuck in Theo in a makeshift bed on the couch that she’d made with blankets.

 “You two can use my room.”

 “We’re good, North.” South responded sharply, scowling at him.

 “I think Theo might like it better.” North stated carefully.

 South’s shoulders slumped slightly.

 “Fine. North, you get him settled.” She rocked back on her heels, nodding towards North. “Theo, let North help you, since he knows what’s best. I’ll be out here.”

 North sighed, then offered Theo a hand that he took carefully after a moment. “C’mon, kiddo. We’ll give your mom a second by herself.”

 Several minutes later, when North came back after settling Theo down, South was gone, and North couldn’t feel surprised, only disappointed. No note, just a bundle of papers that she’d filled out half of sitting by the bag that she’d brought in with her. North stared at them for a good few minutes before he slowly picked up his phone, dialing up York. It’d be late, but they needed to talk about this now. Carolina, too. She deserved to know what had happened with how things were.

North didn’t sleep much that night. He woke early to make sure that before Theo wouldn't wake up alone, taking some time to get some eggs and bacon cooking, and when the sleepy boy stumbled out into the kitchen North’s heart broke at how the kid looked around, searching for South. A sharp bolt of anger at his sister shot through his chest as he tried to think of anything that he could say to explain this, and what he would do. Theo deserved better than what he’d had, the lack of explanation as to why it was that South had left. North would do the best that he could to give him that, even if he wasn’t quite sure how to yet, and if all went well, he wouldn’t be doing it alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> South goes to someone for help. We learn about the past.

South felt like a literal piece of shit. She shouldn’t be running from this—hell, she should have went to North when she’d first been pregnant. He would have helped her from then, and she could have gotten out of all this and she wouldn’t be leaving them both behind now.

She hated herself for every part of this, but she knew North. Knew that he’d care for Theo more than she’d ever be able to in a thousand years.  She wasn’t good at being a mom, and she knew that the things that were wrong with her hurt Theo, and she knew that leaving him with North would protect him.

This was what she had to do. Maybe someday she’d go back—give North a few years to adapt, stay away long enough that he wouldn’t be furious when she came back. The bus that she’d hopped on a few hours ago was taking her to the one person who she hoped would take her in without a question—if she still was there.  Things were rough between them, and South would admit that it was her fault.

Okay, so rough was an understatement. South didn’t like to think about how they’d parted ways years ago, the fight that’d ensued. Finding her location hadn’t been easy, and a part of her was sure that if she hadn’t wanted her to find it, she wouldn’t have.

She was desperate. That was the simple truth. That’d been why she’d went to North, and this was why she was going to her. That was why she was embarking on her second long bus ride of the week, the last of her remaining savings spent on a one way ticket.

Pretty stupid, actually.

If this didn’t work, then she didn’t care what would happen. Theo was somewhere better. She didn’t matter if she couldn’t fix things.

The ride was long. South was hungry by the time the bus stopped in another city several hours from where her brother lived. The snacks she’d “borrowed” from North would tide her over for now. Hell, she could even claim that she was bringing Connie breakfast. Except it was the middle of the night. And she only had granola bars.

Little problems compared to the bigger one that she’d been dealing with soon. Like explaining everything or anything. This was stupid. She was supposed to be the one that would’ve never gotten stuck in this kind of a situation, but here she was, trying to deal with this.

When the bus did come to her stop, she didn’t want to get off. Did anyway. The night was disgustingly nice, almost like it wasn’t aware that it should be raining or something else to match her mood.

It took at least twenty minutes of walking and menacing glares at anyone who dared to look twice at her to reach the complex she was looking for, another five to convince the girl at the front desk that she was really a friend of Connie’s, and that she should call up to her apartment and tell her that someone was there to see her. It had to be close to seven in the morning by now, ut South could remember that she’d always been an earlier riser.

It took a few minutes after that, but finally, after South’d finally decided that this was hopeless and had settled into a chair to await her probable doom, for the doors by the stairs to open and for Connie to burst out, staring out her, barely different than the day South’d left her and her heart is in her throat and she’s unsure, and why, why is it always Connie who makes her feel this way, so uncertain and tentative and why does she make her care so much about her and what happens to her. Why does she regret hurting her, more than North, more than anyone else? Why is it that just seeing her here, where they’re both left to stare and South is so tentative, because she has no idea where she stands with Connie. What if she doesn’t like that nickname anymore? She’d always complained about it when they’d all been together before, saying that she wanted to be taken seriously.

Maybe South should start—call her Constance, take her seriously. It could be a good idea to do that, and then—

Connie’s moving towards her.

“South?” Her voice wavers for a moment, and it’s still her, she’s still South’s Connie and she sounds exactly and every bit the same.

“Yeah. I mean. It’s me.”

“You said—“ Connie breaks off, refusing to look away and it takes her a moment to gather her thoughts together. “—you said things. About us. And you never called.”

South inhales sharply. “I—Shit. I messed up.”

Understatement and misstatement of the century. Theo’s not inherently a mistake. He’s a good kid, but one that she’d never be good enough or be able to take care of like he’d deserve. It’s everything else that she did that was a mistake.

“Yeah, you kinda did.” Connie looks like she’s going to cry for a moment, but then that passes and whatever openness that she had in her eyes closes, and she crosses her arms over her chest to study South, creating a wall between them. “Why are you here?”

“I just need a place to stay for a few weeks—it doesn’t need to be long, I just need time to—“ South falters here, trying to think. What will she do? “—to get a job. Things fell through.”

That’s a lie. Connie buys into it with a nod, and South’s stomach sinks at her lie, but she pushes past it.

“I need to think about it.” Connie states slowly, but South knew her little habits better than she knew herself, and while some are strange now, she knows when she’s won a battle.

“I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Not even North?” That’s a challenge. Connie had known about their relationship and the tension between South and her brother, but South lets her have this dig, subtle as it may seem to an outsider.

“You know North.”

“I’ll give you a week. No promises after that.”

“Thank you.”


End file.
